About John Stevens of Guilford

Founder of the American branch of this house of Stevens. Shortly before his journey to American 1648 his father, Sir Edward Stephens was made prisoner of state by the extremists of the opposite faction in the house of lords. His manor house at Lypiatt had been besieged by the royalists party.

His wife was probably dead by the time they left for America and headed for Conn. where he had kinsmen. He took with him his two sons and a daughter. He was at once given a grant of lands and accorded a place of influence in Guilford, Conn. An island off the coast was named Falcon Island interesting since the coat of arms shows falcons.

John Stephens was the son of Sir Edward Stephens and Annie his wife, sister of First Lord Crewe of Stene. He was named for his uncle John, who was a Member of Parliament. He seems to have been the founder of the American branch, and was a direct descendant of Airard Fitz-Stephens. His house was besieged and captured by the Royalists at Lyplatt Part, Manor of Little Sodbury, Gloucester County, during the difficulty with Charles I. He came over in 1648 with his sons and one daughter and was given a grant of land at Guilford Connecticut, which had been settled in 1639 and was located seventeen miles east of New Haven; an Island not far from his property was named Falcon in Ablusion to Falcon on the coat of Arms. He died in 1670. He spelled his name Stephyns.

The above is from the statement of Eleanor Lexington which is confirmed by C Ellis Stevens, LL.D DCL, a protestant Episcopal clergyman of New York City who in 1904 privately printed the genealogy of his family, tracing it down from Airard Fitz-Stephens through England and New England, but did not give the other branches of the family after the American settlement.

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John Stevens Birth 1603 in Caversham, Oxfordshire, , England Death 1 Sep 1670 in Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, United States